Hey, fantastic footage ! Although what does your all electric heating, hot water and I assume cooking actually cost to run ? Also, does you electric towel rail in the bathroom provide sufficient heat to the heat the bathroom or do you need an additional electric radiator within the bathroom ?
I love the Drayton system for its compromise between super smarts and "just actually works". The standalone rads are a great idea I'll be investigating
A hybrid system with an electric heating element in regular wet radiators might be the future. Especially if you can regulate the waterflow on the wet side with a remote valve.
Another +1 for Drayton wiser from me. Have TRVs dotted about, plus two room stats. I looked at the electrical switches in the sale for our (future) towel rads, and had a bit of back and forth with their tech and sales teams (more plus points that you can get through to them). The issue is you can't set the switches on a timer... This means in the summer you'd either need to ratchet up the heat on the programmer, which would trigger the boiler, or the electric switches would trigger in the cooler winter as well as the boiler. It's good, but not there yet.
Glad to see they are safe to touch (kid safe!). I grew up with steam/water radiators that required covers and exposed pipes that we wrapped in asbestos sleeves.
Well done, great install but I really believe your situation would have been better served by several small air-to-air heat pump systems. Cheaper running costs and faster to heat the room and also has AC as a bonus.
Great vid, heard good things about wiser. Just updated my dumb towel radiator with a heating element and a shelly smart switch to control it as a dual fuel radiator so it can run off central heating in winter too.
Great video Tim and Jo, I have this system with TRV’s and smart plugs for past 4 years. Really easy to set-up and manage. Do have a look at the insights reports because then over time you can monitor the inside temperature for each room zone by day or month including comparison of outside temperature. You lucky people getting it for free when us mortals have to pay ☺️
Nice. I was tempted to knock up something similar with some cheap smart plugs and smart thermometer. For the cost of about £25 per rad. Essentially the smart plug will give you scheduling and teamed with a smart thermometer you could turn on/off at certain temps. Tapo platform would be great for this. Will just be a bit bulky at the socket end.
Great, I used car antifreeze to fill which is probably very similar to your pink stuff. I also discovered that you don't need to leave an air gap at the top if you let the towel radiator get hot and then screw the top cap on while still hot.
No TRV's and no zoneing. - open system designed to run at a really low flow temperature and ballanced correctly will be the most energy efficient. Glycol reduces the SHC, making it a bit less efficent for heating, however it is needed od there is a chance of freezing during powercut unless anti freeze valves are used.
The Wiser smart plugs also double up as a range extender if you have any connectivity issues between the hub and any heat switches/TRVs that are a bit further away. I’ve been using the system for 3 years and it works really well.
I’ve got the Drayton system all over the house it’s great. Does maintain a good temperature throughout which is good. I’ve just got the electric switch like your using for the radiators for my underfloor heating in the bathroom. Still not got it fitted but have the heating switch wired up and you can hear the relay click when I activate it
Looks ace Tim but I think your point about insulation is really important when it is done well I think its a game changer for how much heating you actually need.
The big question is! Is it cheaper and more efficient than gas central heating. You must also install a water heater of some kind, for showers and general washing. I suppose the first thing to take into consideration is the reduction of sir charges for a gas meter rental.
Fortunately with such well detailed insulation and airtightness we have managed the whole house heating on just these two radiators. We have a small LPG water heater for hot water but the expense of piped plumbing would probably not have been well spent money.
Any chance of an update on this - after a winter of use, cost performance etc. plus it'll be interesting to see what you go with in the big barn build !!
Not directly relevant to this video, but as electric heating is expensive and you mention you are going to instal a wood burner for winter, have you considered adding a Recoheat (heat recovery system) to the flue? We used our wood burner for all ambient heating last year as biomass pellets would have cost £500 per month(!!). I haven’t installed a Recoheat system myself but am looking into it. As I commented on your earlier MHRV system, it may make the room noticibly cooler winter so this could well help keep you all warm. Really enjoy the variety of your videos.
Glycol solution i believe they do sell it if you google radiator fluid. I believe it’s essentially antifreeze though so I don’t see why you couldn’t use a glycol antifreeze. Can anyone confirm ?
Mate. I like it. I just put a 150w probe on my towel rail. It was originally 400 or 600w. Thing is now it’s just Luke warm. I’d expect if the water kept cycling round it would get hotter and hotter throughout the day but I think it’s reached a temperature and that’s it. I’m wondering if I emptied the water and changed it out for the stuff you used it may make a difference?
A brilliant solution - and looks very smart too! [By chance I've spent today retro-fitting electric elements to two towel rails on our CH system for toasty towels in the summer - using Hive switch/sockets for timing. Why, oh why are heating installers too lazy to simply run bathroom towel rails off a separate circuit on a wet system - just a bit of pipe and an extra motorised valve to have summer heat from the boiler that's working to supply HW anyway?]
Nice, I have Drayton Wiser and didn't know the electrical heat switch existed. We have an awful IR remote on our towel radiator which is awkward to program so I think I see this in my future. It's a shame the Wiser Room Thermostat is so expensive, personally I'd be happy for a cheaper model without the screen or controls - if I can control it from my phone that'd be fine
Great video. Just used two of the Wiser electric switches, one for ufh and one for a towel rail. Ive used the same heating element as you have in the bathroom, for the same reasons, so your comments on how it would work with the Wiser switch was perfect! Basic question, but how long does your bathroom towel rail take to heat up?
would you recommend a setup like this for a small 2 bed apartment? It's electric only and has traditional water radiators and am doing it up. Would it be better to go full electric like a visiting plumber suggested? Thanks
I tried to fit a wiser unit to my heating. I spent an hour or two on the phone to their very helpful support line, but we simply could not get it to connect to my WiFi. I had wisers predecessor which worked well for me but the stat died rendering the whole system useless - they'd stopped making them.
How does that rad compare to the Ecostrad rad you installed a while ago? We have a couple of the Ecostrads and were underwhelmed by them. Do the glycol filled rads heat the room better?
We had initially planned IR matting to be plastered in to ceilings. In the end we did timber ceilings so not possible our heat demand is so low it may have been excessive anyway.
Hi hiw did you find a 1000 watt element? As if you read inlije they recommended 100 watts per sqaure meter of floor space. We have a room thats 16 meters and run a 1500 watt hester in there, if i transferred to these at 800 to 1000 watt i worry they may not be enough. Even in a larger radiator like yours once the water is heated then its heated though right? Its the water that disapates the heat as opposed to the element? So more water will take longer to heat but will emit more heat? Whats your thoughts?
Great stuff, been thinking about getting an electric towel radiator so we can have warm towels without putting the entire central heating on - what heating element(s) did you use in the video? Thanks
I note you are planning for a wood burner. Would this be a conventional log burner or one of those pellet things? I have a conventional log burner and was thinking of fitting a back boiler and looping it into my gas ch system as I already gave a dunsley neutraliser system in place. However there are lots of scare stories about the government banning log burners soon. Comments? I did see a Japanese woodworker video recently where the guy said log burners were really catching on in Japan at the moment. It seems to be a minefield
It would be a log burner, wouldn’t bother with pellets again. Usually arrive in plastic bags and not made in Uk. We have unlimited firewood so makes sense. Fortunately the cabin is not governed by residential regs so would be fine whatever. That said, I can’t see a full ban, too many people rely on it as a primary heat source.
What’s the u value of the elements in this cabin? If you can get down to 0.11 you don’t hardly need any heating! I think a 5kw multi fuel stove will eliminate most of your heating requirements especially in the winter
Towel radiator is a necessity whatever primary heat source you have. (well it is here!) 😂 We are not that low on U value mainly due to the wall thickness and ratio of perimeter walls to m2 however floor and roof are beyond new build and I would say its pretty good for a 'caravan'. It's one reason why I have just left it as a single radiator for now so we will see what Winter is like. The main build will be very low and therefor no central heating. 👍
Electric heating is insane. Shame you didn't install proper MVHR and ducting in the roof space - that would circulate the air and then a small mini split a/c would have supplied 4kw of heat for 1kW of electricity - ¼ of the cost and cheaper than gas. We heat our 5-bed house with two mini splits that cost £3.5k fully installed.
Can you go into a bit more detail on this for those of us who have no idea what you're saying! :) I'm not being sarcastic btw... we have an off grid house that's costing a fortune to run on electric and desperately need a better solution!
@@gilesrees2413 Hiya, air conditioning units are heat pumps that heat air instead of water and so are 4-500% efficient - they also clean the air and cool the house in summer. They are MUCH easier to install than Air to Water heat pumps - it only took one man one day. It works well for us because the house is very open plan - we like the whole house to be at least 20°C, we don't keep cold rooms. We also have a new efficient gas boiler but we only use that for heating the hot water because the a/c is cheaper to run! It helps if you have solar and batteries because if you have a heat pump, Octopus will allow you to go on 'Octopus Cosy' and you can have cheap electric 4-7am and 1-4pm. I hope that helps, most heat pumps in Sweden are a/c units, we are in the UK but the house is Swedish made.
Really neat idea. Certainly prettier than the common electric radiator dross we see. Have to say, experience of Drayton wiser hasnt been positive, so I hope you fair better 👍
Hey, fantastic footage !
Although what does your all electric heating, hot water and I assume cooking actually cost to run ?
Also, does you electric towel rail in the bathroom provide sufficient heat to the heat the bathroom or do you need an additional electric radiator within the bathroom ?
I love the Drayton system for its compromise between super smarts and "just actually works". The standalone rads are a great idea I'll be investigating
A hybrid system with an electric heating element in regular wet radiators might be the future. Especially if you can regulate the waterflow on the wet side with a remote valve.
Another +1 for Drayton wiser from me. Have TRVs dotted about, plus two room stats.
I looked at the electrical switches in the sale for our (future) towel rads, and had a bit of back and forth with their tech and sales teams (more plus points that you can get through to them). The issue is you can't set the switches on a timer... This means in the summer you'd either need to ratchet up the heat on the programmer, which would trigger the boiler, or the electric switches would trigger in the cooler winter as well as the boiler.
It's good, but not there yet.
Thanks
Glad to see they are safe to touch (kid safe!). I grew up with steam/water radiators that required covers and exposed pipes that we wrapped in asbestos sleeves.
Well done, great install but I really believe your situation would have been better served by several small air-to-air heat pump systems. Cheaper running costs and faster to heat the room and also has AC as a bonus.
Jumping off a cliff sounds a great idea. Okay, you go first...
@@christianwithers7335 Not sure WTF that means but I suspect you're one of the lemmings heading for the cliff edge.
Good to see this, after having hive for 3+ years and at the witts end with it, I've been swaying towards the Drayton system
Great vid, heard good things about wiser. Just updated my dumb towel radiator with a heating element and a shelly smart switch to control it as a dual fuel radiator so it can run off central heating in winter too.
Great video Tim and Jo, I have this system with TRV’s and smart plugs for past 4 years. Really easy to set-up and manage. Do have a look at the insights reports because then over time you can monitor the inside temperature for each room zone by day or month including comparison of outside temperature. You lucky people getting it for free when us mortals have to pay ☺️
13:35 I was thinking the same about the switched FCU. Probably the first thing the children switch off 😶
Nice. I was tempted to knock up something similar with some cheap smart plugs and smart thermometer. For the cost of about £25 per rad. Essentially the smart plug will give you scheduling and teamed with a smart thermometer you could turn on/off at certain temps. Tapo platform would be great for this. Will just be a bit bulky at the socket end.
I've had the Drayton system for 3 years, and it has been brilliant
Great, I used car antifreeze to fill which is probably very similar to your pink stuff. I also discovered that you don't need to leave an air gap at the top if you let the towel radiator get hot and then screw the top cap on while still hot.
Good idea. I was surprised how much it did expand and still bled a bit off when hot.
No TRV's and no zoneing. - open system designed to run at a really low flow temperature and ballanced correctly will be the most energy efficient.
Glycol reduces the SHC, making it a bit less efficent for heating, however it is needed od there is a chance of freezing during powercut unless anti freeze valves are used.
The Wiser smart plugs also double up as a range extender if you have any connectivity issues between the hub and any heat switches/TRVs that are a bit further away. I’ve been using the system for 3 years and it works really well.
That’s good to know. I’ve heard good stuff from a few people running the other products like TRVs and sockets. 👍
I’ve got the Drayton system all over the house it’s great. Does maintain a good temperature throughout which is good. I’ve just got the electric switch like your using for the radiators for my underfloor heating in the bathroom. Still not got it fitted but have the heating switch wired up and you can hear the relay click when I activate it
Yes we have towel rail and are is duel fuel are good
Looks ace Tim but I think your point about insulation is really important when it is done well I think its a game changer for how much heating you actually need.
Absolutely. Insulation and glazing design will be top of the list with the main build next year. 👍
The big question is! Is it cheaper and more efficient than gas central heating. You must also install a water heater of some kind, for showers and general washing. I suppose the first thing to take into consideration is the reduction of sir charges for a gas meter rental.
Fortunately with such well detailed insulation and airtightness we have managed the whole house heating on just these two radiators. We have a small LPG water heater for hot water but the expense of piped plumbing would probably not have been well spent money.
Any chance of an update on this - after a winter of use, cost performance etc. plus it'll be interesting to see what you go with in the big barn build !!
Just coming up to a full year so yes an update coming soon. 👍
Not directly relevant to this video, but as electric heating is expensive and you mention you are going to instal a wood burner for winter, have you considered adding a Recoheat (heat recovery system) to the flue? We used our wood burner for all ambient heating last year as biomass pellets would have cost £500 per month(!!). I haven’t installed a Recoheat system myself but am looking into it. As I commented on your earlier MHRV system, it may make the room noticibly cooler winter so this could well help keep you all warm. Really enjoy the variety of your videos.
Wonder if this could also be linked into a power feed from a Myenergi Eddi to run from excess solar.
Hey Tim. Love your work 👍
Wondering how these are working and what fluid you used. Planning to use this idea for off-grid fully electric house.
Glycol solution i believe they do sell it if you google radiator fluid. I believe it’s essentially antifreeze though so I don’t see why you couldn’t use a glycol antifreeze. Can anyone confirm ?
Mate. I like it. I just put a 150w probe on my towel rail. It was originally 400 or 600w. Thing is now it’s just Luke warm. I’d expect if the water kept cycling round it would get hotter and hotter throughout the day but I think it’s reached a temperature and that’s it. I’m wondering if I emptied the water and changed it out for the stuff you used it may make a difference?
A brilliant solution - and looks very smart too!
[By chance I've spent today retro-fitting electric elements to two towel rails on our CH system for toasty towels in the summer - using Hive switch/sockets for timing. Why, oh why are heating installers too lazy to simply run bathroom towel rails off a separate circuit on a wet system - just a bit of pipe and an extra motorised valve to have summer heat from the boiler that's working to supply HW anyway?]
Nice, I have Drayton Wiser and didn't know the electrical heat switch existed. We have an awful IR remote on our towel radiator which is awkward to program so I think I see this in my future.
It's a shame the Wiser Room Thermostat is so expensive, personally I'd be happy for a cheaper model without the screen or controls - if I can control it from my phone that'd be fine
Great video. Just used two of the Wiser electric switches, one for ufh and one for a towel rail. Ive used the same heating element as you have in the bathroom, for the same reasons, so your comments on how it would work with the Wiser switch was perfect! Basic question, but how long does your bathroom towel rail take to heat up?
Usually on just before we wake but only a few minutes I think. Obviously it's a but more gradual than CH.
What ratio of liquid mix did you use and any specific glycol brand?
would you recommend a setup like this for a small 2 bed apartment? It's electric only and has traditional water radiators and am doing it up. Would it be better to go full electric like a visiting plumber suggested? Thanks
I tried to fit a wiser unit to my heating. I spent an hour or two on the phone to their very helpful support line, but we simply could not get it to connect to my WiFi. I had wisers predecessor which worked well for me but the stat died rendering the whole system useless - they'd stopped making them.
How does that rad compare to the Ecostrad rad you installed a while ago? We have a couple of the Ecostrads and were underwhelmed by them. Do the glycol filled rads heat the room better?
I hope you investigate and or fit some IR panels …. Another type of electric heating with minimal installation demands.
We had initially planned IR matting to be plastered in to ceilings. In the end we did timber ceilings so not possible our heat demand is so low it may have been excessive anyway.
Hi hiw did you find a 1000 watt element? As if you read inlije they recommended 100 watts per sqaure meter of floor space. We have a room thats 16 meters and run a 1500 watt hester in there, if i transferred to these at 800 to 1000 watt i worry they may not be enough. Even in a larger radiator like yours once the water is heated then its heated though right? Its the water that disapates the heat as opposed to the element? So more water will take longer to heat but will emit more heat? Whats your thoughts?
Great stuff, been thinking about getting an electric towel radiator so we can have warm towels without putting the entire central heating on - what heating element(s) did you use in the video? Thanks
What was the radiator model that you used in the living room please?
I’d like to know also
Alpha - Raw Metal Column Radiator
Well thats what it looks like to me
ptfe tape on fittings with rubber seal? 🤔
Another great video, what company did you use for your column radiator?
I note you are planning for a wood burner. Would this be a conventional log burner or one of those pellet things? I have a conventional log burner and was thinking of fitting a back boiler and looping it into my gas ch system as I already gave a dunsley neutraliser system in place. However there are lots of scare stories about the government banning log burners soon. Comments? I did see a Japanese woodworker video recently where the guy said log burners were really catching on in Japan at the moment. It seems to be a minefield
It would be a log burner, wouldn’t bother with pellets again. Usually arrive in plastic bags and not made in Uk. We have unlimited firewood so makes sense. Fortunately the cabin is not governed by residential regs so would be fine whatever. That said, I can’t see a full ban, too many people rely on it as a primary heat source.
Do you have solar panels on the cabin or the farm for all your electricity needs?
Only once the barn conversion has new roof. 👍
What’s the u value of the elements in this cabin?
If you can get down to 0.11 you don’t hardly need any heating!
I think a 5kw multi fuel stove will eliminate most of your heating requirements especially in the winter
Towel radiator is a necessity whatever primary heat source you have. (well it is here!) 😂 We are not that low on U value mainly due to the wall thickness and ratio of perimeter walls to m2 however floor and roof are beyond new build and I would say its pretty good for a 'caravan'. It's one reason why I have just left it as a single radiator for now so we will see what Winter is like. The main build will be very low and therefor no central heating. 👍
@@TheRestorationCouple totally, yes a bathroom always needs some form of heat…
150mm PIR and an air tight vapour Barr gets you to about 0.13 u value,
Apologies for my ignorance in advance, but what are the advantages of this type of system compared to the ‘plug in’ stand alone radiators?
Did you sell the Solis, any reason for opting for the Massey?
It was a demo model on loan.
Blanking plugs with a o ring doesn’t need PTFE
Are the radiators not filled with anything?
Watch on and you will see…. 👍
💯 Leccy
👍
Electric heating is insane. Shame you didn't install proper MVHR and ducting in the roof space - that would circulate the air and then a small mini split a/c would have supplied 4kw of heat for 1kW of electricity - ¼ of the cost and cheaper than gas. We heat our 5-bed house with two mini splits that cost £3.5k fully installed.
Can you go into a bit more detail on this for those of us who have no idea what you're saying! :) I'm not being sarcastic btw... we have an off grid house that's costing a fortune to run on electric and desperately need a better solution!
@@gilesrees2413 Hiya, air conditioning units are heat pumps that heat air instead of water and so are 4-500% efficient - they also clean the air and cool the house in summer. They are MUCH easier to install than Air to Water heat pumps - it only took one man one day. It works well for us because the house is very open plan - we like the whole house to be at least 20°C, we don't keep cold rooms. We also have a new efficient gas boiler but we only use that for heating the hot water because the a/c is cheaper to run! It helps if you have solar and batteries because if you have a heat pump, Octopus will allow you to go on 'Octopus Cosy' and you can have cheap electric 4-7am and 1-4pm. I hope that helps, most heat pumps in Sweden are a/c units, we are in the UK but the house is Swedish made.
We’re going to fill this with some special fluid… Tim’s chat up lines are the best 😅
I used cheap cooking oil
It was actually an F#
I'm not 100% but your not allowed that spur down that low or near I think 1.6 or 2m from sink or bath
The spur is in the next room, the electric heat switch is bathroom rated and outside of zones 1 and 2. 👍
Really neat idea. Certainly prettier than the common electric radiator dross we see.
Have to say, experience of Drayton wiser hasnt been positive, so I hope you fair better 👍
Glad you have enough money to afford electric heating, not for we mere mortals unfortunately!
Cheaper than installing a boiler for two radiators and probably the most efficient way to do summer towel radiators. 🤷♂️
@@TheRestorationCouple Ah, you said the whole building would be electric heated, didn't know the building only had three rooms 👍
@@aardwolf21 there are small wall heaters in bedrooms but even when below freezing outside they weren’t needed. Glad we insulated so much.